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Are my ears burning? Talk about me at the 92nd St Y blog out of New York City.

This is the 92nd Street Y in New York, a Jewish Community Center, but also a resource for all New Yorkers in many aspects of life....culture, music, art, education, health, etc. I've heard about the Y for years, but I have never been there.

Turns out the folks at the Y have a blog where they discuss upcoming events. On October 19th David Rakoff will moderate a discussion at the Y with fellow authors Daniel Radosh (Rapture Ready!) and A. J. Jacobs (The Year of Living Biblically). As they prepare for their presentation, the 92nd St Y blog has posted a conversation between Jacobs and Radosh that mentions little ol' me! Here's the blurb below, plus a link to the entire blog posting:

What are the best Christian bands?

The ones that don’t get played on either mainstream or Christian radio. Actually, the first Christian rocker, Larry Norman, was pretty incredible. His late 60s and early 70s albums have a visionary artistic integrity that holds up quite well. The problem is that for most people, Christian music is still defined by the era of bland, imitative, corporate crap that came next — the Stryper and Amy Grant and dc Talk years of the 80s and 90s. You still hear that on Christian radio today, but there are also a lot of indie Christian bands that reject the notion that Christian music is supposed to be all about either spreading the gospel or providing a safe alternative for church kids. Artists like mewithoutYou, the Myriad, Over the Rhine, Jonathan Rundman, Pedro the Lion, and Derek Webb, to name just a few, write really compelling and enjoyable music that challenges stereotypes about Christian rock in ways that befuddles non-Christians and freaks out other Christians.

Ha! I've got to give serious props to Daniel Radosh for mentioning me all over the place in the past months, from his book Rapture Ready, to a piece for the New York Times, and to other writer friends of his who have contacted me. Thanks Dan!